


Impulse Control

by AngeNoir



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Masturbation, Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, discussions of consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:41:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1246306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A remix of cassandraoftroy's story Worst-Case Scenario. Their summary is as follows:</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Tony has a backup plan in case his heat suppressants ever wear off in the middle of a bad situation. But he never counted on magic throwing a monkey-wrench into his preparations. Now Steve has to hope that his own contingency plan will be enough to protect them both.</em></p><p> </p><p>This story can be summarized as follows:</p><p>"Steve grew up in a time when omegas were property, where you didn't mess with another's omega, where Peggy as an omega and a leader in the army was freakish and strange. He'd figured the future would have advanced society and treated omegas better.</p><p>Turns out they just gave new excuses for old crimes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impulse Control

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassandraoftroy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandraoftroy/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Worst-Case Scenario](https://archiveofourown.org/works/593297) by [cassandraoftroy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandraoftroy/pseuds/cassandraoftroy). 



> Any line in the story that has `.` around it has been lifted directly from [cassandraoftroy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandraoftroy/pseuds/cassandraoftroy)'s story [Worst-Case Scenario](http://archiveofourown.org/works/593297?view_full_work=true).
> 
> This basically started off as a premise "what would have happened if Steve had not masturbated on to the door and couldn't reassure Tony that he wanted him that way" and ended up being an in-depth world-building experience that was unexpected but draws parallels to the argument you hear nowadays about how men just have these "urges" to fuck and that's why men rape.
> 
> This story very literally picks up in the middle of Worst-Case Scenario and goes off from there so it is **very mandatory you have read that story first, to know the set-up**.
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTE: Rereading this, with some of the comments in mind, I realize that this can read VERY STRONGLY OF VICTIM BLAMING. That was neither mine, nor Steve's, intent. However, because I as an author do not delve deeply into an explanation and discussion surrounding his reasons, it still comes off that way. I may add a second chapter to have someone kick Steve's ass and have him fully explain since it never happened in this story.

`“No, Tony. You need to stay right where you are. It won’t be much longer,”` Steve said, trying to keep himself from moving towards the door handle. Leaning his forehead against the door, he cast his mind about. Was there another way out of the closet? Was there something Tony could use to get out beyond a screwdriver and hinges?

Before he could find a way to ask JARVIS, he heard Tony moan, low and long, and he was instantly hard again. Biting his lip, he knew he shouldn’t listen in – it would only make everything that much worse. Still, he couldn’t help himself as he tilted his head tried to figure out what Tony was doing.

`“Fuck, yes, that’s it…”`

Steve went from aroused to painfully teetering on the edge of rutting against the door, of tearing the door open and replacing whatever Tony was using as a fucking implement – fingers, tools, his _hand_ – with his own cock. Viciously, Steve gripped himself and _squeezed_.

The pain kicked his arousal down a notch – and let him know that his knot was half-formed, already ready to tie Tony even though Tony had made it abundantly clear that he was uninterested in mating any of the alphas on the team should the scenario, that was currently taking place, happened.

He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this to Tony, couldn’t entertain these kinds of thoughts. For all that his arousal was pressing at the back of his mind, he would _not_ lose control of himself. He was here to take care of Tony, protect Tony. And that meant from _everyone_ , including himself.

So he stalked away from the door, hands clenched into fists at his sides, and stalked in a tight circle through the hallway. When that didn’t do anything at all, he moved on to physical exercise – push-ups, first, one handed, in quick repetition. Moving the urge from sex to just physical activity was difficult, but it not only kept him awake and aware – something that was getting more difficult, now – but it slowly began working. It was easier to ignore the ache in his abdomen, eager to tune out the sounds behind the door.

Okay, not really easier. But it was doable.

And he wasn’t going to do anything like claim Tony in all but name by easing his relief. He kept it in the forefront of his mind – _Tony is probably having it worse. Tony deserves better treatment than this._

He endured.

 ***

`Around noon on the fourth day, there was a knock on the door.` It had been – hell. To pace the hall, to stay awake leaning against the nearby wall – he found the wall was better than the door, because the door was _saturated_ in Tony’s pheromones – all of it had been the most difficult trial Steve had ever gone through. He’d never heard of anything like this happening before. Normally, if an omega went into heat, there had always been an alpha around to deal with it. It wasn’t until after his forced slumber that he began to seriously consider whether the omegas had wanted the alphas to deal with it.

In any case, all of that meant that Tony’s situation – Sitwell’s situation – he’d never had to consider before. Not all of the Howling Commanders had been alphas, but the one omega on the team had a steady partner and their heats had been a tri-monthly occurrence, very much like clockwork.

The point of this, of course, was that Steve didn’t know what to say to Tony when he opened that door and Tony stood before him, almost completely naked save for his shirt that had been turned into shorts. Instead, Steve stood there awkwardly, and he couldn’t think beyond the fact that even now, without the pheromones of the heat swirling through the air, he wanted. He wanted so desperately, and so he swallowed hard and began to move forward to clean up the closet.

Which Tony put a stop to, and Steve had to admit he _didn’t_ know how heats affected the digestive systems of omega, though thinking about it objectively he realized that for an omega to go for three to four days slick and unable to do much more than fuck would mean that their system would need to wash itself clean. Clearing his throat, he stepped aside and asked Tony, `“Are you sure you’re all right?”`

Tony blinked at him, startled. `“What? Yeah – I’m fine. Listen, I’m sorry about—”` he waved his hand in the general direction of the closet, `“—you know. And sometimes people just don’t… Anyway, forget about it. Everything’s fine. We can still work together, right? I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on, so I should just get going. Catch you later, Cap.”`

And then Tony was pretty literally fleeing the scene, the elevator doors sliding open soundlessly and closing behind him almost immediately.

Steve frowned at the closed doors, trying to figure out what was wrong with Tony. Tony was the first to make jokes about his sex life, unashamedly sharing details that Steve tried to ignore because that would only make Steve wonder, and wondering wouldn’t be good for Steve’s slow building of an interpersonal relationship with Tony that was built on respect. Was he really embarrassed about it? When he and Tony had discussed possible contingency plans earlier in the year, Tony had been angry, annoyed, but definitely not embarrassed.

Turning back to the closet and his own supplies, he carefully left the door ajar and gathered up the bottles and food wrappers. Now that the immediate danger was over, his body was beginning to process the command to stand down, and it was going to crash and crash hard. He’d prefer to be in his own bed at that time.

 ***

When he woke, it was almost twelve full hours since he’d used an actual toilet (trying to figure out how to defecate while guarding Tony had kept his mind off of Tony’s scent for over two hours, the longest he’d been able to go without being reminded of Tony and what Tony was doing in the closet) and collapsed on his bed. Rolling onto his back, he stared up at the dark ceiling and tried to put a finger on his unease.

It was more than just Tony’s obvious discomfort with Steve’s presence. After all, for all that Steve had begun, to his shame, think of Tony as _his_ as his wanting got tangled up in his desires, he’d been very careful to keep his interactions with Tony professional and approachable. Steve knew – objectively, because he could have no real personal experience with this – that omegas could be friends with alphas but it was difficult because quite a few alphas seemed to think that it meant they were entitled to things they really weren’t, and he did _not_ want to do that to Tony. Tony could easily be uncomfortable with Steve, an alpha, being around while he went through his heat. That explained that part. But to be embarrassed? That implied there was something in Tony’s behavior that he shouldn’t have done, something that Tony felt he needed to apologize for. Since Tony had never apologized for having sex before, for unabashedly being an omega with a healthy (overactive) sex drive, Steve couldn’t figure out what it was.

`Vulnerability`? Tony hated being vulnerable in any way. He hated it when people suggested he couldn’t handle things, hated it when SHIELD had recommended Iron Man but not Tony Stark, hated it when people implied that being an omega made him more flighty and less able to do what the rest of the Avengers did.

But that didn’t explain the _shame_ , that only explained the discomfort and the haste in which Tony left. Why would that affect why Steve would work with Tony? Because that’s what Tony had said, ` _‘We can still work together, right?’`_

He should actually try to get some answers from the person who said the words, not run around in circles around the topic. Besides, he was up now, and even though he had that strange disconnection that normally meant he was overtired, the idea of rolling over and going back to sleep was unappealing and most likely impossible. The last time he’d slept twelve hours straight had been before the serum, when he was a kid and ill with a fever.

Getting up out of the bed, he threw on a shirt over his sleeping sweats and pulled on the nearest pair of shoes – boots – and made his way to Tony’s workshop.

Music was playing at a deafeningly loud volume and when JARVIS finally got permission to let Steve into the room, Steve was overtired _and_ nursing a headache despite the fact that the serum was supposed to remove all ailments. Before Tony said anything – he opened his mouth, hands busy with a hologram hovering in front of him – Steve pointed at the speakers. “Do you mind turning off the music entirely, please?” he asked.

Tony gave him a long look, eyes hooded, and made some indecipherable motion that had the music cutting out entirely. `“All right, Cap. Shoot.”`

Taking advantage of the fact that Tony was, in fact, not being defensive and instead was allowing him to control the direction the conversation went (or at least where it started out), Steve decided that he had no patience to try and dance around the issue. `“Why did you ask if we could keep working together?”`

Tony held his gaze a moment before looking down at the hologram. Giving it a tap, he shifted some bits of it around before saying, “I figure the Avengers is pretty important, and it makes things easier if everyone can work together.”

“Yes, I’m not arguing that, Tony. What I’m curious about is why you think we won’t be able to work together.”

Tony shrugged and flipped the floating diagram upside-down. “Well, let’s gloss over the fact that the other Avengers are in the tower and remained in the tower the entire time I was – indisposed. We can just focus on the fact that I know intimately how disliking someone can affect cohesion on a team.”

Steve blinked at Tony. “What – who dislikes who? What are you trying to refer to?”

“Oh, let’s not play this game _now_ , Rogers,” Tony finally said, voice hard and unbearably weary. “After what we’ve been through together, it’s impossible to come to any kind of conclusion except the fact that you apparently hate my guts.”

That made Steve’s head rear back in shock. “What?” he managed to gasp, feeling as if the conversation had happened on a completely different level than he had intended for it to go.

`“I understand high school biology as well as anyone – in fact, a lot better than most people,”` Tony began, but his voice was uncertain, his eyes boring into Steve’s. “Heat pheromones attract alphas. That’s pretty much it. I’ve gone beyond the requisite biology into knowing everything behind it – that all an alpha can think about is fucking the omega, that alphas have and will fight one another physically to claim the omega, all the studies done about what omega pheromones do when released in the air and an alpha can’t get to them. Omegas are all taught exactly what their heat can do and how to avoid it, how to time the heat down to the day so that there’s no ‘accidents’ with alphas.”

Steve was not quite sure what Tony was saying, and he looked at the other male, slowly and carefully, trying to understand the implications of Tony’s words. “Are you saying… you _wanted_ me to open that door and come get you? You wanted to get fucked?”

“I’m saying, at that point, what I wanted was irrelevant – it was only what you wanted.”

“ _Exactly_.”

Tony’s hands, which had been fidgeting absently with the hologram, stilled. “What?”

“If I had opened that door, I would have fucked you,” Steve said plainly. “But I didn’t open that door, because if I did that, I would have only been thinking about what _I_ wanted, not what you wanted. And you very clearly told me before that what you wanted, in this situation and scenario, was to be left alone in a room to your own devices. I was pretty sure you didn’t literally mean a broom closet, even if that’s where you ended up this time, but you told me what to do in this situation and I did it. Are you saying you thought so _little_ of me that you expected to be taken advantage of and are now… what, upset I didn’t?”

Tony licked his lips and dropped his gaze. “I’m saying that I know what biology’s like. If you need to piss, there’s only so long you can hold it before you have to. If an alpha’s near an omega in heat, there’s only so long they can hold out before they have to fuck the omega. Except, apparently, you and Natasha, so maybe the studies only showed what an alpha would do if there was an omega around that didn’t smell… wrong. Or if they actively didn’t dislike the omega.”

“See, you’re losing me here,” Steve growled. “What does smelling wrong or ‘disliking’ omegas have to do with anything we’re talking about right here? We’re talking about a very straightforward issue about _friends,_ which is what I thought we were. Did you think – what, because I _didn’t_ come into that closet, because Natasha didn’t come up to the hall, we hate you? Is that it?”

“You’re both alphas,” Tony said philosophically, shrugging it off as if it meant nothing. “That’s not what alphas do.”

“It’s what _friends_ do!” Steve shouted.

Tony flinched a bit, and that seemed to actively make him angrier because then he was standing up, stalking away from Steve, pacing as he replied sharply, “Omegas are taken away from their alpha _parents_ when their heats first come one because you can’t trust _parents_ to stay away from their _kids_! Everything you learn, every study available, every scientist who’s done studies – they all agree alphas _cannot_ ignore heat pheromones. But, apparently, you and Natasha can, so that must mean something’s wrong with _me_ – or that you both have a problem with me.”

Steve took a step forward and clenched his fists at his side, trying to keep from taking another step, from going toe to toe with Tony because right now, Tony might be angry, but he was also scared, because he was pacing and Steve had never seen Tony pace when he was just angry. “What, do you want to hear about how much I thought about you? About how _hard_ it was to keep from opening that door? Do you want to know every filthy, depraved thought that ran through my head?”

Nothing but shock and confusion was on Tony’s face – Steve had surprised him enough to leave him stock still and silent. Tony’s gaping mouth and befuddlement made a dark part of Steve happy and made the rest of him both sad and furious in equal measure. “What?” he finally croaked.

“If you’re thinking we’re not going to work well together because Natasha and I hate you, since that’s the only reason for an alpha to not mate an _unwilling_ omega,” Steve bit out, unable to keep his temper from sharpening his words, “rest assured, there are other ways to deal with smelling an omega in heat. If anyone has the problem with someone else here, Stark,” he snapped, and watched Tony jerk in surprise at his surname being used, “it’s _you_.”

With that, he stormed out of the workshop and made his way up to his room, unsatisfied, hurt, and sure that he’d just made sure that there was a conflict between him and Tony instead of fixing anything.

 ***

As much as storming out of Tony’s workshop was satisfying, it didn’t do anything for Steve except intensify his sadness while making it harder to hold onto his anger. He knew, objectively, that omegas feared alphas. He’d seen it before. But he’d never understood exactly what omegas actually _thought_ about alphas. Did they all think alphas were nothing but uncontrolled instinct? That alphas _had_ to fuck an omega in heat? All the science and studies Tony had researched – that was what he found out?

In war, omegas in heat had been used to break enemy lines. Instructors drilled soldiers on how to ignore their physical needs and desires and keep the formation. Intense physical action could keep an alpha from breaking rank. Since the flip side of lust – for alphas, at least, Steve was beginning to realize that omegas had a completely different worldview than him, so he could only speak for alphas right now – was violence, fighting or transferring the lust into bloodlust was difficult but possible.

Steve could remember being in school, taking the requisite ‘alpha’ class (betas took a beta class, and omegas took an omega class). There, the teacher had made it clear that omegas were weak, needed a firm hand to keep them in line. They’d been taught that when they found an omega of their own, it was their duty to provide for every need the omega might have and keep the omega away from other alphas. Heats had never come up, but Steve couldn’t remember any time before his army training about how to keep himself from simply pouncing on an omega that was in heat.

Perhaps that was it, he thought slowly, pacing the length of his room. Perhaps it was only in the army, where omegas could be used by enemies, that alphas were really _taught_ what to do when confronted with an omega in heat. Maybe everyday citizens were not taught how to be restrained, in control. Omegas were simply expected to recognize their heat and just… not be in the situation where a heat was coming on around strange alphas.

That seemed like very poor planning on the part of society, really.

Unable to keep within his room, tired but unable to make his mind rest, he went out to the communal kitchen to get something to eat more substantive than those food bars. There, he found Natasha and Clint sitting quietly, discussing some papers before them. When they saw him, they both smiled easily.

“We were just discussing on who would fill out your debriefing forms,” Natasha said easily, and promptly shoved papers towards him. “I scented that Tony’s heat ended.”

Steve took the papers and looked Natasha squarely in the eye. “What kept you from coming up to the hallway and fighting to mount Tony?”

Shock and something akin to rage flared in her eyes, even as Clint frowned severely. “What the fuck, Steve?” he asked. “Shit, do you really think she would have done that?”

“Tony can’t believe you and I both could ignore him and _not_ fuck him. So I’d just like to be clear; how did you keep from coming up to that hall and challenging me?”

After a very long moment, Natasha said quietly, “I remained out of the tower for the worst part of it. Otherwise, I simply worked more in the gym, or had sex with Clint, or worked on my meditation.”

“So your biology does not, in fact, mean you have to fuck omegas?”

Natasha drew her head up regally, and there was hurt in her eyes but also understanding. “I am not my biology; I am more than that. Any alpha can ignore those desires – an alpha that hides behind the excuse of his biology is lying.”

“Even if scientific studies show that alphas have a primal urge to fuck omegas in heat?” Steve pressed.

“Even if. Self-control is never impossible. The urge does not mean an alpha needs to act on it.”

“Excuse me,” Clint growled, getting up and leaving the table.

Steve almost stopped him – almost. But truthfully, he knew Clint was going to give Tony a piece of his mind – and since Tony had shut down Steve’s attempts at explanations, perhaps Clint could get through to him. At this point, Steve was too hurt and too furious to think rationally about Tony at all.

When Clint was gone, Natasha regarded Steve steadily and said quietly, “You cannot blame him for this.”

“For thinking I’m – I’m no better than an animal? For thinking that I _should_ have raped him, and the only reason I wouldn’t rape him is because I find him repulsive or wrong somehow?!” Steve snapped, and he was belatedly aware that he was shaking with fury and that he was crushing the papers in his hand. Taking a slow, deep breath, he centered himself and smoothed the papers out.

Natasha winced, but she didn’t back down. “If you are told one thing, over and over again – if society reinforces that one thing, and no one questions it, yes, you shouldn’t blame him for it.”

“He’s the genius! He’s the genius who supposedly studied and researched this!” Steve growled low in his throat.”

“He’s also the genius,” Natasha said pointedly as she got up from the table, “who had to fight from a very young age to be taken seriously by alphas. He’s the genius who was nearly locked out of his own company because of an alpha. And he’s the genius who still fights these battles daily, in the media and in the boardroom. I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” she said, completely deadpan, “but we Avengers are a bit different than normal people.”

That startled a chuckle out of him, and he let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I noticed.”

“None of us have had what you could call a ‘standard’ upbringing. Perhaps Bruce, but even then, I would not call him average in any sense of the word,” she continued, pouring herself a mug of hot water and dropping a tea-ball in the steaming cup. “Still, you may want to discuss with him where Tony could have gotten these ideas from. Because yes, I’ve met omegas who thought of alphas as nothing more than beasts, and were clear in their disdain and hatred for alphas. But I’ve also met omegas who actively were confrontational because any perceived encroachment by an alpha was seen not as someone being a dick or not knowing boundaries, but an alpha telling them that they are lesser because they are an omega. I’m not saying,” she said over Steve’s noise of disgust and objection, “that Tony was right in assuming what he did. But you are also not right in assuming you know _why_ he is assuming what he is.”

Steve stared at her a long moment, eyes narrowed, before letting out a sigh. “It’s – not even that I’m angry,” he said quietly, and she smiled sympathetically, patting his shoulder as she walked by on her way out of the kitchen.

“I know,” she responded. “But most people get angry when they’re scared.”

“So you’re saying I should talk to Bruce about this?” he asked quietly.

She arched her eyebrow at him. “I’m saying that out of all of us, Bruce is probably the only one who could vouch for what’s being taught in schools. If you want to find out what Tony thinks, and why Tony thinks that way, you should ask him. Not Bruce.”

Steve knew she was right – it was why, after all, he’d gone to confront Tony earlier. He knew he’d need to calm down and speak to Tony again about this.

But he could put that off for another day.

 ***

It was almost two days later when Tony wandered into the kitchen. Steve looked up from where he was washing dishes and tried not to be the first to say anything that was potentially fight-starting.

Not that he had to, because Tony almost immediately launched into speaking, voice casual and easy. `“What’d I miss for dinner?”`

Steve nodded to the plate set to the side. `“Eggplant Parmesan,”` he replied.

Tony made a beeline for the plate, unwrapping it and perching on the edge of one of the chairs. He made a few noises of delight over the food, and the little bit of talk that followed focused on the food and who had made it. Finally, feeling guilt churn in his gut – it wasn’t as if Tony had been around to apologize and talk to, but it wasn’t like Steve had tried very hard in the first place – Steve cleared his throat. `“I’m sorry about the other day. I shouldn’t have blown up at you like that.”`

Tony paused in the middle of eating and eyed Steve warily. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. It was totally my fault; you had every reason to get upset at me. `You’re different than most of the asshole` alphas who are normally around when my heats have been a problem. Hell, you’re different than most of them who are around even when my heat isn’t throwing a wrench into things.”

“You’ve been around alphas before, when going into heat?”

Tony smiled, and the smile wasn’t particularly nice. “You saw the backups I had. Yes, I’ve been near alphas before as a kid and I’ve been extremely careful to never have that happen again.”

There was no better time than now to ask. “Why?” Steve asked softly. “Help me understand – what happened?”

“Oh, surely you can guess,” Tony snorted.

Steve took in a deep breath, hands still against the dishes and head bowed so as not to look directly at Tony, keeping himself from telegraphing any of the anger. “I can,” he said finally. “But I’ve been around omegas before, even in the middle of their heat, and as much as it was highly uncomfortable and very embarrassing, I have never once done anything that omega did not consent to while they were in their right mind.”

There was a moment of silence that stretched out long enough to make Steve turn around to look and see if Tony was actually still in the room. He was, staring at Steve as if never having seen him before.

“What?” Steve asked.

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. “Clint told me that I underestimated you, and that you could control yourself, but if you’ve been around someone while they were in the middle of their heat and not done anything—”

“I did it with you, too,” Steve pointed out, voice sharp. “And I ignored Agent Sitwell when that unfortunate circumstance happened. All the agents around him did.”

Tony drummed fingers against the table. “I don’t know what to give you,” he finally said. “I mean – none of that makes sense. Biologically speaking.”

“No, it makes perfect sense,” Steve said, and he was vaguely aware he was speaking through his teeth. “I understand I shouldn’t have gotten mad about generalizations you’ve made about alpha based on your interactions, because that’s not your fault but the alphas’ faults, but any alpha – _any_ alpha, scientist or not – who declares that alphas just _have_ to fuck an omega when the omega is in heat has obviously never heard of the training alphas in the army have to go through to keep themselves from risking their troop or mission because the enemy staked an omega in heat out as a sacrifice. Hell, _before_ I went into the army to train, I accidentally came by Bucky’s house when one of his sisters went into heat – it wasn’t difficult to turn around and walk the other way. So any alpha, any alpha at all who claims it’s a _biological urge_ and they simply _must_ fuck you is flat-out lying.”

He realized he was breathing hard, fists clenched tight around the plate, and forced himself to relax his grip before he broke it. Tony stared at him with dark eyes and finally said quietly, “I’m sorry. Again. I shouldn’t yell at you or get angry at you for this. But you need to understand that this is – this is completely unheard of.”

“You can’t tell me that in the forties omegas were treated _better_ than they are now,” Tony said, eyes narrowed.

Steve shrugged his shoulders. “And they weren’t, not really. They weren’t allowed to get jobs in high-achieving fields. They weren’t taken seriously – Peggy had to earn her respect at every turn. But we – alphas – were expected to take our hats off in front of an omega. We stood if the omega was standing and sat down when the omega sat. Yeah, alphas took advantage, and people said it was just alphas being alphas, but those alphas never had the excuse that it was – that they couldn’t have controlled themselves. They were – they were the trash, the rough element, the gangs and the toughs. They weren’t representative of all alphas.”

Tony tapped a finger against the table, food forgotten in front of him. “Well… that’s not what’s known nowadays,” he said slowly.

“No shit,” Steve grunted, turning back to the sink and taking in a shaky breath.

Silence stretched again before Tony cleared his throat. “So, for the record, you and Natasha are fine with me on the team and the reason my heat didn’t affect you two is _not_ because you had some problem with me personally.”

With a disgusted curse, Steve dropped the dishes in the sink, pivoted on his heel, and cupped Tony’s chin before kissing him, deeply, thoroughly, mapping every inch of the shorter man’s mouth.

When he pulled back, Tony licked his lips, eyes glazed. Feeling embarrassed for essentially forcing himself on Tony, he cleared his throat and dropped his gaze. “No,” he said quietly, “it is not because we had problems with you personally. For heaven’s sake, Tony, I spent the time outside that door pretty much non-stop training.”

“I did wonder about that,” Tony hummed. “Clint told me that he saw alphas do that when they were trying to control the desire to rut or challenge another alpha.”

Steve inclined his head slowly. “Yeah, we can channel lust into physical activity. We can channel it into other areas, too, but physical activity is the easiest, frankly.”

“Well, you still feeling the urge for physical activity, soldier?” Tony asked, voice warm, and when Steve looked up at Tony, he saw Tony’s eyes were soft. Catching Steve’s gaze, Tony said quietly, `“Thank you, by the way.”`

Steve blinked. “For what?” he asked.

“For – last week. For this. For explaining, and being… nice about it, I guess.”

`“You don’t need to thank me for that,”` he began, hotly, and stopped when Tony’s smile flashed, blindingly wide.

“I know, now. That’s just, a thank you for it, formally, and a thank you for – explaining to me, I guess.”

Steve folded his arms and scowled. “If I could find the alphas in your past who made you think it was their biological right to take advantage of you—”

`“I’m glad to have you around, Steve,”` Tony said, mouth quirked up in a smile. “Thanks.”

Clearing his throat, Steve unfolded his arms and shrugged a little, aiming to lighten the mood since he’d apparently gotten his point across and Tony understood it. “Well, it’s good that I’m willing to `stick around for a while. Somebody gave me this really nice set of rooms. And the company’s not bad.”`

“Yeah?” Tony said, letting his smile turn from something sweet and caring into something markedly more alluring. `“You sure the bed’s all right? I was afraid it might be too big, for just one.”`

Steve laughed, and turned back to the dishes he’d stopped doing in the middle of the job. “Oh, don’t worry. `I’ll ask you to look into that issue eventually.` First, though, I’m thinking I should talk more about the food available, and what’s good. Have a dinner or two with you first.”

The alluring smile collapsed into a sweet, eager smile, and Steve felt happier than he’d felt in a long time.


End file.
